The production of a film or video composition generally involves a number of different participants, such as video editors, composers, audio editors, special effects and graphics artists, and producers. In order for a project to be completed in a time and cost efficient manner, the participants must be able to work together effectively. Yet collaboration among production team members is often complex, not secure, and cumbersome. For example, in order to share a bin or project with a collaborator, an editor must export media and sequences using a process that involves wrapping them up in a suitable container and transferring them to another team member. This process can involve conversion of media from one format to another, a computationally expensive process that can cause loss of quality. Conversion is needed when media is being shared among participants using media editing applications based on different media models. For example, when a video editor using a non-linear video editing application wishes to share a draft sequence with a sound editor using a digital audio workstation (DAW), the video editor needs to convert the sequence into a standard format, such as QuickTime, a process which eliminates metadata specific to the editing application's data model. The eliminated metadata may no longer be available for subsequent steps in the production process. Subsequently, when the sound editor adds a sound track to the received QuickTime sequence and exports it back to the video editor or to a producer for review and approval, the export step involves converting the digital audio workstation's rich audio model into a standard format in which metadata of the rich audio model is eliminated.
In addition, editors often use sharing services that were not designed for the very large files that are used in professional media, with consequent transfer delays and unforeseen exhaustion of resources, such as the filling up of a local disc drive. Furthermore, communication among the team members during the various production phases is not well supported, which can lead to duplicative, wasted work, such as audio edits based on an already obsolete version of the video sequence.
There is a need for tools that support collaborative media production to address these problems.